25 random things on Facebook and egglaying marsupials (probably not on Facebook)
In response to the great article by Mark Earls
(http://herd.typepad.com/herd_the_hidden_truth_abo/2009/02/25-random-things-and-egglaying-marsupials.html):
creative's great". As I keep saying it doesn't matter whether it's
brilliant creative or not. It really doesn't. It's luck. We've found from going through a bunch of data that you can create
good performance (i.e. for every 4 people you pick up through a highly
targeted media buy, you can get 3 of their friends in aggregate for
free - 75% viral) by making sure what you create is relevant and
social (i.e. requires more than one person to participate in order for
it to work!). Not by if its pink, green or blue or cool or even a
"great concept". It just doesn't matter. It's luck if it grows
exponentially. This 4/3 progression is of course is not exponential growth, but more
like the front of a bell-curve (unsurprisingly!). You might see the
same curve on other systems where there is competition (friction) -
i.e. something requires energy to get it going until it reaches a
point where the effects of friction (or competition) require too much
energy hence any growth stalls - when the energy runs out you get a
decay effect.
